Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration, resulting in fragility fractures. In Hong Kong, the prevalence of osteoporosis among Chinese women aged ≥50 years old was reported as 37% and 16% at the spine and total hip, respectively. The current gold standard to diagnose osteoporosis is to use dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), yet this 2D imaging device can detect areal bone mineral density only without bone structure information provided, leading to unsatisfactory fracture prediction. Many patients diagnosed as normal or osteopenia still experience fractures, reflecting the technical limitations of DXA. Therefore, a more sensitive measurement device is in pressing need for a better diagnosis and fracture prediction, which can ultimately help reduce the number of fragility fracture patients and the related medical cost in long run.

A state-of-the-art 3D imaging technology, High-Resolution Peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (HR-pQCT) that can measure changes in bone microarchitecture, will be introduced for early detection of high fracture risk from marginal osteopenia cases. Our Bone Quality and Health Centre is the only centre installed with HR-pQCT in Hong Kong. This project aims:

To promote the updated knowledge on the HR-pQCT for early diagnosis of high fracture risk through educational talks in the community, thus increasing their awareness of osteoporosis.
To screen the community older people with traditional DXA, followed with inviting osteopenia cases to perform HR-pQCT assessment to measure their bone microarchitecture condition.
To identify the osteopenic patients with high risk of fracture for clinical follow-up, and further enhance our established 3D bone structure database of Chinese elderly.

This project is to promote using HR-pQCT to identify the community elderly at high risk of fragility fracture. Clinically, this will help reduce the number of fragility fracture patients. A mature algorithm for early diagnosis of osteoporosis using HR-pQCT will be worked out as well. Meanwhile, our Hong Kong 3D bone structure database will be enhanced and a higher prediction accuracy is expected. This will ultimately reduce the prevalence of fragility fracture cases and related medical cost in long run

• Community-dwelling elderly for DXA screening


• Osteopenia patients for HR-pQCT assessment

2022

Healthcare, HealthTech, Well-being